With electronic devices, particularly portable devices such as mobile phones, becoming smaller and yet at the same time offering a wider range of functions, there is a need to integrate multifunctional chips but without increasing the size of the devices and keeping a small form factor. Increasing the number of electronic components in a 2D structure is incompatible with these objectives, and therefore 3D packages are increasingly being adopted in order to provide greater functionality and higher component density but with a small form factor.
In a 3D structure electronic components such as semiconductor chips with different active IC devices may be provided in a multilayer stacked structure. Traditionally wire bonding (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,933,172) is used to establish electrical interconnects between chips, but wire bonding requires greater in-plane size and out-of-plane size and is inconsistent with the objective of maximizing the component density. To connect electrically the components in different layers through-silicon-via (TSV) technology may be used to provide the electrical interconnect and to provide mechanical support. In TSV technology a via is fabricated in a silicon chip with different active IC devices or other devices fabricated by a semiconductor process and the via is filled with metal such as Cu, Au, W, solders, or a highly-doped semiconductor material such as polysilicon. Multiple components provided with such vias are then stacked and bonded together.